The Weekly Wrap: July 12-18

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The Weekly Wrap: July 12-18

Smoke Days

As a reader, one of my delights has always been in snow days, when blizzards and cold make staying inside and reading. In our brave new climate world, snow days are increasingly infrequent. But this week delivered the new climatological replacement: the Smoke Day. In our part of the United States, if Canada is having a wildfire season and the winds are out of the northwest, the smoke, smelling like burning plastic, fills our skies. Yesterday morning, our Air Quality Index reached over 400, the worst reading our city has ever recorded. Some cities to our north reached readings of over 700, hazardous for all mammals.

Now I don’t think this is a good thing. Firstly, it is just plain dangerous. Sunlight turns the smoke into deadly things like benzene, formaldehyde, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and ozone, some of which are carcinogenic and others which just make breathing difficult. In addition PM 2.5 particulates penetrate deep into our lungs. Then there is all that carbon dioxide, added to what we humans generate. We never used to have days like this. Changing climate conditions turn Canadian forests into tinderboxes. And many Canadians are dealing with far more dire conditions than we are.

The one consolation is that like the Snow Day, about all one can do is stay indoors (hopefully in an air-conditioned spot that filters and recycles the air) and enjoy a good book. But I manage to do that most days anyway. At least I have a good excuse to not do yard work! I would rather not have the excuse of Smoke Days. But I fear it is a new normal. Stay safe friends!

Five Articles Worth Reading

Everyone’s abuzz about Christopher Nolan’s new cinematic rendering of The Odyssey. In “We’ll Help You Find Your Next Great Book. (Spoiler: It’s the ‘Odyssey.’),” A.O. Scott suggests that no matter your taste in literature, there is something in The Odyssey for you. And he uses that to introduce us to several translations of Homer’s classic.

Colson Whitehead’s Cool Machine concludes his Harlem Trilogy. David Hadju reviews it in “The Unapologetic Crime Fiction of Colson Whitehead.”

Batsheva Labowe-Stoll maintains the quest to develop artificial intelligence has often been religious in nature in “The Deep Spiritual History of AI.” For those familiar with Genesis, the efforts to develop AI have often seemed to me another Tower of Babel story.

Derek Thompson asks, “Why is the news media so interested in telling you how much the world sucks all the time? Why are so many of us obsessed with distraction and managing our attention? Why is it so hard to stop comparing ourselves to others? And why does everything in art and design seem the same these days?” In conversation with philosopher Agnes Callard, Thompson discovers one idea that links these questions, the “uni-context.” Read “A Philosopher’s One-Word Theory to Explain Why the World Feels So Weird” for the full interview.

Finally, I’ve often reflected on what an amazing intellectual Christian community the Inklings represented. Comment explores similar communities through history and around the world in “Seedbeds of Christian Humanism: A Gallery” The article links to articles devoted to 31 different communities.

Quote of the Week

This one was thought provoking. Is the search for truth a waking up from our dreams? So suggests Iris Murdoch, born July 15, 1919:

“We live in a fantasy world, a world of illusion. The great task in life is to find reality.”

Miscellaneous Musings

An example of the community the Inklings and Dorothy L. Sayers enjoyed is described in a new book, The Way of Dante by Richard Hughes Gibson. It’s a marvelous study of the interactions between C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Dorothy L. Sayers around a shared love of Dante. Not only did they challenge each other’s thinking but the encouragement of Williams and Lewis gave Sayers the courage to embark on a new translation of the Divine Comedy.

As seems usual with Jane Austen, I’m on tenterhooks to see if Anne Eliot and Captain Wentworth rekindle the romance Anne ended at the persuasion of Lady Russell, who judged the Captain unworthy of the family in Persuasion. Don’t tell me. I want to see if I’ve guessed it. This is number four of the Austen novels I’ve read this year.

He’s a MacArthur Fellow, has won numerous national awards, I love his writing, and he is from the city where i live. And now, Hanif Abdurraqib adds to all this the honor of being named the 2026 ABA Indie Bookstore Ambassador! Well done!

Next Week’s Reviews

Monday: Kathy Tuan-Maclean and Tara Edelschick, Moms on the Way

Tuesday: Donnie Berry, The Earth Will Be Filled

Wednesday: Ken Waters, Words That Shape Us

Thursday: Allen Levi, Theo of Golden

Friday: Jane Austen, Persuasion

So, that’s The Weekly Wrap for July 12-18.

Find past editions of The Weekly Wrap under The Weekly Wrap heading on this page.

Review: The Knocker on Death’s Door

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Cover image of "The Knocker on Death's Door" by Ellis Peters

The Knocker on Death’s Door

The Knocker on Death’s Door (The Felse Investigations, 10), Ellis Peters. Mysterious Press (ISBN: 9781504027151) 2015, first published in 1970.

Summary: Felse investigates two assaults, one a murder, by a church door that has a legend associated with its knocker.

What is it about that door? Legend had it that the knocker on the newly restored parish door was dangerous to sinners, whose hands could be burned if they touch it. But shortly after the celebration of its restoration, two men are assaulted. One of them, Gary Bracewell, was a freelance writer who had returned to the village to look at the door and its knocker. He was found dead at the base of the door, a hand reaching toward the knocker. A blow to the head killed him. A similar blow concussed the other victim.

Inspector Felse, a friend of Sgt. Moon, the local officer in charge, is in the area and joins the investigation. We learn that the door came from a decaying old house, part of a former abbey. The remnants of the Macsen-Martel family live there. Robert, the elder son, manages the home and cares for his ailing mother. However, Hugh, the younger, lives elsewhere and is a business partner with Dave at an automotive shop. Hugh races cars and is dating Dave’s sister Dinah. Robert discovered that the door, used for their wine cellar, had come from the parish church and arranged for the restoration.

The mystery deepens when Dave, who had repaired the steering on Bracewell’s car returns it to his widow. Because he was curious why Bracewell came back to the door, he learned that Bracewell had first seen the door when he wrote a story on the Macsen-Martel house. But the widow could share no reason for the interest. But he had search through photographs. So Dave searches out the photographer, Alix, and eventually they figure out the reason for Bracewell’s interest in the door and its knocker.

They pass all this on to Felse, which leads to the discovery of another body, accompanied by a suitcase! Felse methodically puts the pieces together just in time to prevent one more murder in the exciting climax to the story.

Ellis Peters (a.k.a. Edith Mary Pargeter) is probably most famous as the author of The Chronicles of Brother Cadfael. I read the whole series, enjoying characters, plotting, and good writing. Now I discover this series, albeit out of order, which didn’t seem to be a problem. I suspect you’ll see more reviews featuring Inspector Felse in the future! (And one spoiler: Dave and Alix get together, a trademark, it seems of an Ellis Peters story.)

Review: We the People

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Cover image of "We the People" by Jill Lepore

We the People

We the People, Jill Lepore. Liveright (ISBN: 9781631496080) 2025.

Summary: A history of the Constitution, focusing on the amendments and how difficult it has been to amend the constitution.

Do you know what amendment took the longest time to ratify? It was the most recent, the 27th Amendment, concerning congressional pay, which took 203 years to ratify, finally in 1992. Do you know the last amendment to be proposed and ratified in modern times? It was the 26th Amendment, which was ratified in 1971, giving eighteen-year-olds the right to vote, just in time for me to vote when I turned 18! Depending on how you count, it has been 34 or 55 years since the last amendment proposed was ratified. It’s not for lack of trying, as historian Jill Lepore observes in this book. Notably the Equal Rights Amendment, broadly favored by Americans never was ratified by enough states. Although a majority would like to see this, no amendment has passed out of Congress to abolish the electoral college.

We the People is a constitutional history which focuses the history of constitutional amendments of which there have been only twenty-seven in our 250 year history. But why so few? It all comes down to Article V of the constitution. First, two thirds of both houses of congress must approve an amendment. Then either legislatures or special conventions of three-fourths of the states must ratify the amendment.

Lepore observes that amendments tend to come in clusters. The first twelve were between 1791 (the Bill of Rights, numbers One to Ten) and 1804. The next amendments, Thirteen to Fifteen, followed the Civil War, between 1865 and 1870. Then Sixteen to Twenty-One, which included Prohibition and its repeal, income tax, and women’s suffrage dated between 1913 and 1933. Finally, the most recent group came between 1951 and 1971, Amendments Twenty-Two to Twenty-Six, addressing presidential term limits, DC electors, eliminating poll taxes, presidential succession, and voting for 18-year-olds. Then there was that oddball, the 27th, on congressional pay raises, resurrected from 1789 and finally ratified in 1992.

Lepore traces the periods of amendment and the intervening periods of quiescence. Of particular interest is the growing significance of the Supreme Court, at various times treating the constitution as a living document, adapting it to changing cultural needs. Then at other times, especially more recently, originalism treats the constitution as “dead, dead, dead” in Justice Scalia’s words. All the court may do is interpret and apply it original meaning. Everything else must be addressed by Article V.

But how are amendments possible in such a polarized congress and society? And what happens when neither amendments nor court interpretations address emerging societal realities? Lepore expresses concern about the possibilities of unrest as well as moves away from constitutional democratic governance. She sees neither an activist or originalist court as the answer but a return to a more robust embrace of amendments as the needed “safety valve” that properly allows for constitutional rule that grows with the needs of the country.

She concludes:

“No constitution can be kept forever, like a butterfly under glass, tacked down with pins. In danger of wilting. To constitute is to become or establish; to amend is to mend, correct, repair, and improve. Americans might learn again to amend, or else they could invent a new instrument to guarantee liberty, promote equality, nurture families, knit communities, thwart tyranny, and avert the destruction of a habitable earth” (p. 581).

Lepore has done a tremendous work of historiography. She also has left us with good questions. But I have a hard time seeing a way forward in our current political context and that concerns me. Attempting to draft a new constitution scares me more, the implication of “invent a new instrument.” Some of the basic premises about human nature and political philosophy that the original drafters shared are no longer shared. I cannot foresee anything but chaos ensuing. It seems to me that a critical beginning is a renewed sense of shared congressional vision, leadership, and collaboration. But will we awaken to that necessity?

Review: Enacting Atonement

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Cover image of "Enacting Atonement by Roy McDaniel

Enacting Atonement

Enacting Atonement (Studies in Christian Doctrine and Scripture), Roy McDaniel. IVP Academic (ISBN: 9781514012529) 2025.

Summary: A study of the burnt offering of Leviticus 1:1-9 and how it displays the logic of atonement fulfilled in Christ.

Leviticus is where Bible reading programs often go to die. We get through Genesis and Exodus (although those tabernacle instructions can be a challenge). And then we get to Leviticus. All those offerings. But Roy McDaniel believes that the burnt offering described in the first nine verses of Leviticus 1 is significant for how it enacts atonement. He believes it both points toward and finds its efficacy in Christ’s atoning death.

McDaniel unpacks his argument through a narrative analysis of Leviticus 1:1-9. He begins with the setting (chapter one) of the sacrifice in God’s call to Moses from the tent of meeting. Then he sets that call in the character of God as revealed in his dealings with Israel in Genesis and Exodus. This points to the sacrifice addressing both satisfaction of divine justice and a recapitulation through a “filial” substitution. This is further elaborated in the plot (chapter two) of the Levitical sacrifice. The plotline of the sacrifice is a return to God of the filial offeror, through the death of the sacrifice, to God.

The hero (chapter three) is the filial son who presents the offering, laying his hand on the head, then slaughtering it, and skinning it. But the priests splash its blood and arrange the pieces to be burnt. So, this points toward the eternal Son who is both offeror and offering. Earthly son can only identify with the offering. The heavenly Son becomes it. Thus, the action (chapter four) sees the offering as one addressing the offeror’s original sin that stands in the way of approaching God’s presence and serving. Daniel traces each step and how it both satisfies the justice of god through the substitution of the offering. This is completed, then, in the pleasing aroma ascending to God.

Finally, McDaniel considers the meaning (chapter 5), considering on the basis of Hebrews, how the burnt offering enacts Christ’s work. McDaniel argues for the importance of the ascension, as well as the crucifixion and resurrection. The ascension is the pleasing odor rising to God. If not the completion of the sacrifice, as Moffitt argues, it is the exaltation of the filial Son.

Since McDaniel’s case foregrounds the burnt offering of Leviticus 1 as satisfaction through filial substitution, he includes an appendix traces the histories of models of the atonement. The study makes a good case for the typological significance of the burnt offering. And it celebrates the ultimate hero, the eternal Son!

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Review: Beauty and Resistance

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Cover image of "Beauty and Resistance by Jonathan P. Walton

Beauty and Resistance

Beauty and Resistance, Jonathan P. Walton. InterVarsity Press (ISBN: 9781514012284) 2025.

Summary: A rule of life for those engaged in justice efforts in which beauty and resistance flow from a rested life.

Jonathan P. Walton is an effective ministry leader, a gifted communicator, and an advocate for justice. But a few years he was weeping in his car, stressed out and facing physical health issues. He realized he was facing burnout. His passion for God was expressed in resistance. But his heart was starved for beauty. Over a period of several years, he realized he was in need of the “scaffolding” that provided rhythms and practices to nourish his love for a God who was both beautiful and just. Like many activists, he realized that he needed to cultivate the depths of his life to sustain him in the work of resisting injustice. This book is the fruit of that process. He distills what he learned into four rhythms.

Rest: Working out of rest, not for it. He recognized that a component of his drivenness was a reaction to his family background–who he was trying not to be like. He was all about productivity but rest, date nights, and other activities of delight were missing. Walton re-framed his yearly calendar to work out of rest, with practices of beauty and delight for him and his family in every month. This also means facing dissatisfaction, despair, and desperation and bringing it to Jesus. Then he invites us into the light yoke of deliverance and discipleship.

Restore: Replenish your inner life for the work before you. Firstly, sleep was a priority. Then Walton discovered the importance of doing what he delighted in. For example, in his case this included baking and the book includes several of his recipes! It meant writing poetry he gave to his oldest daughter.

Resist: Seek individual and collective flourishing. He states that to be baptized is to be baptized into a revolution. Specifically, the good and beautiful rule of Jesus over all stands against our cultural ways of getting things done. Instead of all flourishing, for some to flourish involves the oppression of others. Walton flourishes in his efforts to resist such injustices through three prayers he prays daily. These are the Lord’s Prayer, The Prayer of Saint Francis, and the Franciscan Benediction.

Repeat: Establish rhythms to be a whole person in fruitful community. Walton uses Lewin’s force field analysis to identify the driving forces and restraining forces he needs to account for in pursuing his desired goals. Out of this, he establishes rhythms of rest, restoration, and resistance to pursue daily, weekly, quarterly, and annually. For the reader, he offers a chart of questions following this template.

Walton also adds another R that may be the first step for many and that is Recuperate. He gives the example of his own recuperation process from foot surgery. Whether physical, emotional, or spiritual, recuperation may be the starting place to take the first steps into the four rhythms.

I appreciated two things about this book. One was that Walton has “walked the talk.” He takes us through what he went through, which has a ring of authenticity. The other is the joining of beauty and resistance, of formation and justice advocacy. Walton shows how the integration of these two aspects into a rhythm of life nurtures a sustainable life. Instead of either burnout or oblivious bliss, Walton offers a model of discipleship in which beauty and resistance nourish each other.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Review: Thriving in a Relationship When You Have a Chronic Illness

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Cover image of "Thriving in a Relationship When You Have Chronic Illness" by Lisa Gray, LFMT

Thriving in a Relationship When You Have a Chronic Illness

Thriving in a Relationship When You Have a Chronic Illness, Lisa Gray, LFMT. New Harbinger Publications (ISBN: 9781648486081) 2025.

Summary: Using ACT therapy, skills to keep relationships strong during chronic illness.

It is probably stating the obvious to say that chronic illness changes one’s life. But what may be less obvious is that chronic illness impacts relationships. Activities once shared in may not be possible, and with that shared dreams. Intimacy may change leading to guilt and frustration. Both the one with the illness and the well partner are affected. In other words, the dynamic of the relationship is altered.

Lisa Gray, LFMT writes this book to address the relational challenges of chronic illness. She believes partners going through chronic illness both pass through, or indeed, cycle through the classic five stages of grief. These are: shock and denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and testing and acceptance. She then uses skills drawn from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) to provide tools for working through these stages:

  • Present Moment Awareness during shock and denial: staying in the moment rather than “future-tripping.”
  • Cognitive Defusion during the anger stage: Stepping aside and observing one’s emotion, helping one decide how one will respond.
  • Finding Values during bargaining: Rather than chasing “if onlys,” aligning personal and team values to pursue what’s important.
  • Self-as-Context during depression: there is a “you” that isn’t your thoughts and that you do not need to become your thoughts.
  • Committed Action and Acceptance during testing and acceptance. You experiment with actions aligning with your values in moving forward and you accept that life has changed while having found new ways to live in relationship.

The book devotes two chapters to each stage. The first explains the stage as it relates to chronic illness. Then it explores how this impacts communication and emotions, shared activity, intimacy and sex, and friends, family and gatekeeping. Finally, the first chapter introduces the ACT skill for that stage. The second chapter goes back through the relational impacts, discussing them for both well and sick partners, interspersed with exercises. Gray uses summaries of key points and reflection questions to bring home key concepts.

Throughout, the tone is non-judgmental. The writer anticipates and discusses all the feelings and thoughts people go through in chronic illness. I thought the skills and exercises very clear and practical. While the book is best worked through together, a partner can work through it alone to work on their response to chronic illness, not their partner’s.

Chronic illness changes life for partners. One of the most critical things for a relationship is constructive communication as couples go through this. While the book is not a substitute for seeing a mental health professional, it can facilitate both understanding and skills that help couples work together through this difficult time in their life together.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review through LibraryThing’s Early Reviewers Program.

The Weekly Wrap: July 5-11

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The Weekly Wrap: July 5-11

My Reading Bubble

I am becoming ever more aware that I exist within a reading bubble. I interact with a lot of readers both in person and online. And yet it turns out that only 20 percent of people in this country account for 80 percent of all book sales. And while those sales are up, as is library usage, it doesn’t appear that this is from an explosion of new readers. Rather, it might be that many of us old readers are upping our game. For retirees like me that may be literally true.

This week at The Atlantic, Rose Horowitch announced “The End of Reading Is Here” (article below). What struck me is that she was describing a sharp cultural divide between a literate and post-literate culture. Surprisingly, it is not for the absence of reading, which comes in bits and bytes constantly in our online lives. But this is very different from longform reading involving the comprehension of extended arguments or plotlines.

Consequently, we maintain different forms of discourse, from a shift from text to audio-visual and from extended discourse and discussion to competing memes and graphics. I could go in all sorts of directions with this, but I would pose the question of which corresponds more truly to life as it really is? Is it longform, or the soundbite? The fact that I keep reading gives you my answer.

Five Articles Worth Reading

We discussed how we would downsize our books by half if we had to over at my Facebook page. For some, that was to think the unthinkable. Mendel Uminer faced this challenge when his landlord said 10,000 books in a 600 square foot flat was just “Too Many Books.”

From too many books we go to the above mentioned “The End of Reading Is Here.” One of the ideas in the article is that eras of literacy are moments in history and that ours may be coming to an end. Read the article and tell me what you think.

In “Who Wants to Be a Professor?,” Mary Townsend explores the process of graduate education that inculcates a certain “persona” that is associated with the idea of a professor. Through experiences of disillusionment, she comes to this conclusion: “For let me tell you the truth, this is the only thing that is real: a lifetime of books read for pleasure, just because. It reminded of a conversation with a grad student absorbed in literary criticism, when I had the temerity to ask, When was the last time you enjoyed a book?” The look!

I’ve often maintained that the life of faith is dynamic, not static. It’s not just flipping a switch from non-belief to belief. In “Bosom Buddies” an older poet and theologian talk about how what it means to believe has changed over time as they’ve wrestled with the vicissitudes of life.

I’ve always love The Millions previews, offering thoughtful synopses of what they think are some of the more significant books of the season. Well, they have done it again in “The Millions’ Great Summer 2026 Book Preview.”

Quote of the Week

Marcel Proust was born on July 10, 1871. Given the environmental impact of most forms of travel, we might consider this:

“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.”

Miscellaneous Musings

I loved working through Ellis Peters’ Brother Cadfael books. I’ve been reading one of her Felse Investigations. While set in modern times, I find this equally engaging. I think I’ve found a new (or not so new) series.

Maybe I’m too dogmatic, but I’ve pretty well concluded there is no place for using AI in the composition of books. Writing is hard work when done by humans but has brought us great and truly original works. Using AI to generate text just seems like cheating. And its also not always a very reliable researcher.

One would think getting to read lots of books is one of the perks of reviewing–and it is. But one of the most surprising satisfactions has been to work with authors, publicists, and readers and to engage with them as people. I think the reviewer who doesn’t like people misses out on a great deal and reviewing just becomes a grind. But that could just be me.

Next Week’s Reviews

Monday, Lisa Gray, LFMT, Thriving in a Relationship When You Have Chronic Illness

Tuesday: Jonathan P. Walton, Beauty and Resistance

Wednesday: Roy McDaniel, Enacting Atonement

Thursday: Jill LePore, We The People

Friday: Ellis Peters, The Knocker on Death’s Door

So, that’s The Weekly Wrap for July 5-11.

Find past editions of The Weekly Wrap under The Weekly Wrap heading on this page.

Review: The Gospel After Christendom

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Cover image of "The Gospel After Christendom" edited by Collin Hansen, Skyler R. Flowers, and Ivan Mesa

The Gospel After Christendom

The Gospel After Christendom, edited by Collin Hansen, Skyler R. Fowers, and Ivan Mesa. Zondervan Reflective (ISBN: 9780310175476) 2025.

Summary: An intro to cultural apologetics, explaining how it is done and in what context, and what questions it answers.

Apologetics classically has been the effort to give a reasoned defense (“apology”) for the Christian faith. It is often associated with reasoned argument, proofs for God’s existence, evidence for the trustworthiness of the biblical accounts, of miracles, and the resurrection of Jesus. In recent years an offshoot to apologetics, cultural apologetics, has arisen out of the realization that classic apologetics is answering questions many people aren’t asking. Rather, it is an effort to understand and re-frame the cultural story in a way to which the gospel speaks compellingly as the best way to make sense of that story and one’s life. As one of the editors of this book, Collin Hansen, states:

“Cultural apologetics, then, helps non-Christians want the gospel to be true even before they fully understand this good news. We offer the beauty of the lordship of Christ as opposed to the ugliness of the lordship of the principalities and powers (Eph. 6:12)” (p. 4).

This book represents the work of scholars and practitioners associated with The Keller Center for Cultural Apologetics to articulate the meaning and practice of cultural apologetics. Thus it serves as a valuable introductory text for any Christians wanting to relevantly communicate their faith. To do so, the book is broken into four parts, each of which I’ll briefly summarize.

Part 1. What is Cultural Apologetics?

Trevin Wax opens this section by showing how cultural apologetics is a useful tool in communicating the gospel in twenty-first century culture. For example, he shows how this helps us respond to cultural narratives like expressive individualism. Then he shows how curiosity is a way of caring for our neighbors and how cultural apologetics addresses the whole person. Finally, it displays the goodness and beauty of Jesus.

Then Christopher Watkin, who wrote Biblical Critical Theory, shows how cultural apologetics is as old as scripture itself. Continuing this idea Joshua D. Chatraw traces cultural apologetics through church history. He highlights Augustine and Pascal as exemplars of cultural apologetics in their day.

Part 2. How Is Cultural Apologetics Done?

Alan Noble open this section with a fine essay advocating a posture of grace rather than either accommodation or aggression. Then Daniel Strange, in a chapter on missiology, discusses how cultural narratives are idolatrous counterfeits of the gospel. In response, he advocates an approach of “subversive fulfillment.” He shows how Paul modelled this in Acts 17. First, he entered their world, noticing their gods and he explored, finding their altar to the unknown. Then he exposed how humanly created images are frauds. Finally, he evangelized, showing Christ as the “subversive fulfillment” they had sought elsewhere.

Then Gary Sutanto draws out the implications for theology of an anthropology that understands that humans know but suppress the knowledge of God with hearts that are hard and minds that are darkened. It is not that people cannot believe, but that they will not, except as God illumines their hearts as they hear the message. Ultimately, as Gavin Ortlund argues, our work is to expose unbelief as not merely untrue but unlivable. However, the gospel offers hope in place of despair.

Part 3. What Questions Does Cultural Apologetics Answer?

The three essays in this section focus on the goodness, beauty, and truth of Christianity. First, Rebecca McLaughlin makes the case for the goodness of Christianity, pointing to the goodness of Jesus, and how Christianity, as Tom Holland has argued, has powerfully contributed to human flourishing across history. At the same time, she addresses those who would call Christianity bad. Rachel Gilson then considers the beauty of Christianity, and how our sense of wonder points us to what we can ultimately find only in the beautiful God revealed in Jesus. Finally, Derek Rishmawy explores Christianity as true, the ground of reality. We believe it is true not because it works, but rather we believe it works because it is true.

Part 4. Where Does Cultural Apologetics Happen?

First of all, Bob Thune proposes that cultural apologetics originates in the church. That is, the church renewed and hospitable to outsiders is itself a cultural apologetic. However, many in our secular culture won’t initially darken the doors of the church. James Eglinton advocates for “front porches” ranging from public lectures to welcoming homes, to engage people not ready to enter “the house.” Finally, Sam Chan proposes that everyday life offers cultural texts we can deconstruct and reframe, offering the examples of weekend sports leagues, fitness trackers, many of our movies, catching planes, and doing the laundry.

Final Comments

One thing that struck me is that although this was an edited work, it read with a flow and coherence as if written by a single author. To bring such a stellar lineup together and produce such a cohesive text is a tribute to the editors. In addition, the book offers an outstanding introduction to cultural apologetics, providing definitions, baselines, and agenda. All this is done with an admirable brevity, in contrast to many apologetic tomes. In particular, the case for cultural apologetics as an aspect of Christian witness throughout history rather than a modern accommodation is valuable. Final, the book offers abundant examples of cultural apologetics that preach. Consider the example of the essays on beauty, goodness, and truth in part three. This is an outstanding introduction that will hopefully inspire many.

Review: Reading the Bible on Turtle Island

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Cover image of "Reading the Bible on Turtle Island" by T. Christopher Hoklotubbe and H. Daniel Zacharias

Reading the Bible on Turtle Island

Reading the Bible on Turtle Island, T. Christopher Hoklotubbe and H. Daniel Zacharias, foreword by Shari Russell. IVP Academic (ISBN: 9781514007563)2025.

Summary: A reading of scripture that takes North American indigenous culture and experience seriously.

One of the joys of studying the Bible with college students from many cultures was that others recognized things in the text that resonated with their culture but not mine. In those years, we often talked about how God had not left God’s self without a witness in any culture. God is present among all the peoples of the world. They recognize that witness when they hear or read scripture. Yet often, Christians who engaged with North American indigenous culture considered it utterly without value. While we can read any culture into the Bible, the authors of this work believe that Creator has also worked in the cultures of the indigenous people of Turtle Island (North America). When we reading the Bible, valuing our own cultural heritages, scripture often speaks meaningfully and connects with that heritage.

This book is primarily written for other indigenous, First Nations people. The authors invite readers to join into a kind of circle dance of indigenous hermeneutics. They also use the image of a medicine wheel with four quadrants: scripture, cultural traditions, creation, and our hearts and minds. This sounds quite similar to the Wesleyan quadrilateral. Then they walk us through six episodes in scripture, read in light of this hermeneutic.

They begin with both biblical and indigenous accounts of creation. What stands out is the relatedness of all things, and our relationship to the earth, its creatures, each other, and Creator whose “breath and presence” fills all things. Then they read Jesus’ proclamation of Jubilee in Luke 4 alongside the “Harmony Way.” Jesus brings shalom that fulfills the good way of relationship with all creation, with our human and more than human kin.

The vision quest, through which a person understands who one, and one’s relation to one’s ancestors, is vital to indigenous cultures. The authors observe how important vision is in scripture noting the visions of the prophets and the Apostle Paul. But most intriguing was the idea of the four visions of Jesus: in the wilderness, the Transfiguration, Gethsemane, and the cross. In particular, the 40 day wilderness experience, following the anointing of the Spirit, parallels the vision quest.

The authors emphasize that their reading is a post-colonial reading. Indigenous experience includes the “trail of broken treaties” by which peoples were displaced from their home lands. From the seizure of Naboth’s vineyard to the exile in Babylon, scripture also speaks of dispossession. At the same time, it portrays a Creator who keeps his treaties. And the Jubilee of Jesus includes the returning of lands. Then there was the terrible experience of the boarding schools that resonate with readings of the efforts to assimilate exiles like Daniel. He stands out as a model of resistance.

The authors conclude with the many ceremonies celebrated by indigenous peoples. The authors visited sweat lodges, smudgings, circle dances, and drum circles. Rather than outright rejection, the authors note how the Eucharist is an adapted celebration. This may serve as a model for relating to other cultural celebrations.

What is striking throughout is the respect for both indigenous culture and experience, including colonial traumas, and biblical narrative. But rather than a theology of grievance, the character of this work is a focus on the Creator, our community with human and more than human kin, and restoration and reconciliation.

One of the remarkable features is an addendum that is less bibliography and acknowledgements than a naming of the indigenous scholars who preceded the authors. In this, one sees exemplified the honoring of relationships, ancestors, and mentors. These even include “settlers” who have been allies.

In conclusion, this book models some of the ways indigenous peoples might read scripture while honoring their cultural heritage. But the authors also offer insights we may miss in our own readings–our relationship with the rest of creation, a richer vision of shalom and indeed a vision of visions! We often identify with Daniel. Might we view ourselves through the lens of his captors? We are incensed with the wrong done to Naboth but do we ever identify with the dispossessors? Reading scripture with the indigenous people of Turtle Island as a “settler” both enlarges and challenges my perspectives. But isn’t that what always ought happen with scripture?

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Review: The Red and the Green

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Cover image of "The Red and The Green" by Iris Murdoch

The Red and the Green

The Red and the Green, Iris Murdoch. Open Road Integrated Media (ISBN: 9781453201190) 2010, first published in 1965.

Summary: The tangled lives and loves of a Dublin Irish family at the time of the Irish Rebellion of Easter Monday 1916.

I’ve appreciated some of the philosophically-oriented writings of Iris Murdoch. So, I thought I would sample one of her novels. It may be that others she has written are better. I’ll be upfront and say I was not impressed with this one. Others have won awards, so I may not give up without trying one of these.

The seting of the novel is the lead up to the Easter Monday Irish Rebellion of 1916. Andrew Chase-White, on leave after a war injury, joins his recently widowed mother Hilda on a visit to their relations in Dublin. She’s planning to live there. While raised an English Protestant, he is connected to the web of tangled relations that make up this extended family. Andrew’s grandmother’s first husband had two children, Brian and Millie. Millie had no children while Brian married his sister-in-law, Kathleen Kinnard, having two sons, Pat and Cathal, before he died. Kathleen remarried Andrew’s uncle Barnabas Drumm, an aimless scholar who had at one time hoped to be a priest. The other Kinnard sister, Heather, had married Christopher Bellman. They had one daughter, Frances, who Andrew grew up with and is expected to marry. Christopher is also a widower. So, do you have all that straight?

So much of this novel revolves around troubled sexuality. Andrew really loves Frances but he can’t imagine having sex with her. She seems to be the only one with sense, and refuses his proposal. At one point, someone comments that Pat isn’t interested in girls. Only in the Irish Republic.

Millie craves the affection of lots of men and nearly every male in this book finds his way to her bed. Barnabas, in a loveless marriage with a wife devoted to religious causes, regularly takes comfort with her. So does Frances father, Christopher Bellman, who is willing to marry her and help her out of financial straits. She also has her flirtations with younger men, including both Andrew and Pat. Both seek her out on the same night. This results in one of the more hilarious scenes when Christopher, riding through the rain, shows up as well. At the same time, there is a quasi-incestuous character to all of this.

But remember that Irish Rebellion? Both Pat and his younger brother Cathal are Volunteers in the cause with Pat as one of the leaders. Pat even stores a cache of weapons with Millie. Murdoch captures the passion for freedom from English rule combined with the inept leadership of the Rebellion. Pat intuits the futility of their plans and tries to keep his younger brother out of the fighting.

The English-Irish tension is also evident between Andrew and Pat. Andrew has always wanted acceptance by Pat. The tension comes to the head in a surprise confrontation on the day of the Rebellion.

I felt like there was too much going on with all the tangled relationships. Barney seemed pathetic, Millie desperate, Christopher just sad and Kathleen something of a stereotype. Perhaps Murdoch’s point was what a muddled mess we make of our relations. All the glorious talk of patriotism conceals an underbelly of frustrated desire and longing. I wonder why Murdoch didn’t just focus on the tension between Andrew and Pat, who represent the Red and the Green. That’s not the novel she wrote however and this one left me wondering what it was all about.